Landscape Design Basics 2.0
Planning Your Landscape
A new year often brings new plans, new projects, and fresh ideas. It’s also a great time to start planning a new landscape or think about what you’d like to add to an existing one.
You may be a pro at determining what plant should go where, but if you’re not—or you just need a little inspiration—these tips can help get those creative juices flowing.
One question we hear often is, “How do I choose what to plant in the landscape beds around my house?” Tall ones, short ones, fat ones, skinny ones—where do you start?
A good landscape begins by thinking about mature plant size, layers, color, texture, and the conditions in your yard.
Start With Your Foundation Plants
• Plant shrubs that stay shorter at maturity in front of windows, porches, decks, and entryways where you don’t want to block the view.
• Use taller shrubs where you have more vertical space, such as blank walls or areas without windows.
• Always consider the plant’s mature height and width, not just its size when you purchase it. Giving shrubs enough room to reach their natural size can mean less pruning and maintenance later.
These shrubs become your foundation plants—the plants that provide structure to your landscape and may remain there for many years. Using plants with different mature heights and forms creates layers and keeps the landscape from looking flat.
Add Perennials & Annuals
Once your foundation plants are in place, you can add smaller perennials and annuals toward the front of the bed. This creates depth, seasonal color, and another layer of interest.
• Perennials live for multiple growing seasons and can return year after year when they’re suited to our climate and growing conditions. Different varieties bloom at different times, and some die back or go dormant during winter.
• Annuals generally complete their life cycle within one growing season and are perfect for adding lots of seasonal color. Here in East Texas, we can change annuals with the seasons to keep beds colorful throughout much of the year.
I like using a combination of perennials and annuals. Perennials provide plants that return from year to year, while annuals can bring that extra “wow” factor with loads of seasonal blooms.
Mix Up Your Color, Shape & Texture
These same basic principles work whether you’re planning a sunny or shady landscape. The individual plants may change, but layering plants by size and creating visual variety still works.
And don’t make everything green! Mix in plants with purple, burgundy, yellow, chartreuse, silver, or variegated foliage for year-round interest.
Plant shape and texture are important, too. Combining rounded shrubs, upright plants, fine or wispy foliage, broad leaves, and low-growing plants can make even a simple landscape much more interesting.
Most importantly, choose plants suited to the conditions you actually have. Consider sun exposure, drainage, soil conditions, mature size, and maintenance needs before deciding where a plant belongs.
Want More Help?
If putting all those pieces together still feels overwhelming, that’s exactly what our Plant by Numbers consultation is for!
For $50, you’ll get a one-hour consultation where we’ll help you create a plan for your landscape using your photos, measurements, and ideas. We’ll work through plant placement and selections with you and provide a design plan and plant quote to help you bring it all together.
We design it. You plant it.